1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computational modeling, and, more particularly, to computer modeling of alternative financial scenarios.
2. Description of Related Art
Every business, irrespective of its age and size, must at one time or another perform financial planning as a critical activity for managing cash flow and communicating the financial health of the business. For new businesses, the preparation of financial projections is integral to the business planning process. For larger companies, financial planning forms part of annual budgeting and plays an important role in long-term planning, business appraisals, and corporate development.
Central to financial planning and analysis is the construction of complex mathematical models that can reflect finances, activities, and other business factors such as external economic and/or environmental factors. A simple model such as “Sales minus Costs equals Profits” (i.e., S−C=P, expressed as a formula) is used to derive projected profits from assumptions about future sales and costs. In practice, financial planning models are highly complex as they must accommodate multiple time periods (months, quarters, and years) and handle hundreds of variables relating to sales, costs, and other subjective business factors. When visualized as a multi-dimensional array of information (data) and computations (formulas), the volume accumulates very quickly. A very large number of variables may be required to generate a set of complex financial projections.
Common software tools that are used to manage such complex financial planning models include spreadsheet programs and proprietary accounting software tools with fixed (static) computational formulas and outputs.
Conventional financial planning models are used for many purposes, including constructing and comparing financial scenarios, performing sensitivity analyses, and comparing model results against actual results. Traditionally, in spreadsheets, this is accomplished by altering the formulas of result cells. However, if one forgets to change cells' formulas back to their original contents, the model becomes permanently altered. Sometimes, the model will be copied and then altered. However, maintaining multiple models in a consistent manner is difficult. Either way, traditional approaches can, and often do, compromise the integrity of the computation model.